“You are not going to work again to-night?”

“I must.”  Yet he did not get up to go.  He seemed to be waiting to say something.  “I—­I haven’t thanked you.  I don’t know how to.”

“Don’t try.  I’ve done nothing.  There is little that one person can do for another.”

“There’s something that you might do for me—­some day—­if I might ask—­if you would.”

“What is that?”

She followed his gaze as it travelled into the depth of the room beyond the circle of the lamp-light, where the grand piano stood.  Its keyboard shone in an even band of white, its massive body merged in the gleaming darkness.

“If you would play to me—­some day.”

“I will play to you with pleasure.”  Her voice sounded as if she were breathing more freely; perhaps she had wondered what on earth he was going to say.  “Now, if you like.”

Why not?  If she had enjoyed his music, had he not a right to enjoy hers?  Why should she not give him that little pleasure, he who had so few?

“What shall I play?”

“I should like to hear that thing you were playing the other night.”

“Let me think.  Oh, the Sonata Appassionata.”

“Yes, if it isn’t too late.”  The moment he had said it he reflected that that was a scruple that might have been better left to the lady.

He watched her grey-white figure departing into the dusk of the room.  He longed to follow, but some fear restrained him.  He remained where he was, leaning back in the deep chair under the lamp while she sat down there in the dusk, playing to him the Sonata Appassionata.

The space around the lamp grew dim to him; she had gathered into herself all the whiteness of the flame; the music was a part of her radiance, it was the singing of her pulses, the rhythm of her breath.

When she had stopped playing he rose and held out his hand to say good-night.

“Thank you.  I don’t think so badly of my life now.  You’ve given me one perfect moment.”

“Are you so fond of music?”

She was about to ring when he prevented her.

“Please don’t ring.  I can find my way.  I’d rather.”

She judged that he desired to keep the perfection of his moment unimpaired.  She understood his feeling about it, for the Sonata Appassionata is a most glorious and moving composition, and she had played it well.

It was true that he desired to be alone; and he took advantage of his solitude to linger in the picture gallery.  He went down the double row of portraits that began with Sir Thomas, the maker of madrigals, and ended with Sir Frederick, the father of Lucia.  He paused at each, searching for Lucia’s likeness in the likeness of those dead and gone gentlemen and ladies; gentlemen with grave and intellectual faces, some peevish, others proud (rather like Jewdwine), ladies with faces joyous, dreamy, sad, voluptuous, tender and insipid, faces alike only in their indestructible